collective memory

The SS Eastland disaster and Chicago's ghosts.

“I’ve learned, through hundreds of interviews and years of research, is that what crack really did was expose every vulnerability of society.”

The turn-of-the-century literary canon, using data from college syllabi.

Ken Burns’s "The U.S. and the Holocaust" distorts the historical record in service of a political message.

Fifty years ago, a fame-seeker shot the polarizing politician five times, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Why our nuclear fears faded – and why that’s dangerous.

Black archivists, activists, and artists are fighting for justice and ethical remembrance — and reimagining the archive itself.

For too long, we've ignored our real history. We must face where truth can take us.

In 1978, an eighth grader from a prominent Austin family killed his teacher. His classmates are still haunted by what happened that terrible day and after.

Commemorating the event that hardened the lines of segregation in the city.

On the beginnings of our stories—and the history of who owns them.

On the 50th anniversary of that extraordinary year, historians consider 1968’s meaning and global context.

Was the American Revolution such a good idea?

Had Bob Dylan not written a song about it, the 1963 killing of a black servant by a white socialite’s cane might have been long forgotten.

A look back at the historian's work suggests that contemporary radicals may be all too invested in the myth of American consensus.

Reconsidering Earl Warren's place in U.S. history.

In Beth Linker’s new book, she applies a disability studies lens to the history of posture.

The university where 13 student protesters were killed or injured during the Vietnam War era worries that other schools have learned nothing from its history.

May not amount to much, actually. Chicago 2024 is not Chicago 1968.

On the falsification of Lincoln Center’s history.